How to Create a Targeted Action Plan
For most people starting a new year also means starting out with many new objectives. Yet so often, these objectives or goals, can amount to little or nothing if there isn’t an action plan that sees you taking the actual steps towards them.
I suggest alongside reading this article, you also read the one on How to Succeed in your Goal Setting, as we’re going to now be building on the action plan concept to help you take the next steps and set yourself up to win.
Think about it a bit like a building block approach. Start by thinking about your overall goal as the big goalpost you’re heading for. Next we need to break down the big goal into smaller bite-sized chunks which makes it easier to move towards with greater focus and less overwhelm. Finally, our bite-sized chunks are broken down into several possible actions each that get you through that chunk. The bite-sized chunks will usually follow a logical order as one step leads you into the next. Likewise, the actions then progress logically. So effectively, you are creating a cookie trail straight to your goal.
A further benefit of this approach is that it serves to ensure that you are moving in the right direction as it’s possible to take action but be way off track from the goal. It’s the difference between ‘just doing something’ and ‘taking targeted action’.
It’s well worth the time to really plan out the approach with each of your goals. You will find this breakdown much easier to get through and more helpful towards staying focused. Usually, I find there are between 3 – 8 bite-sized chunks for each goal. Begin by brainstorming all the key things that you think you need to get through to get to your goalpost, then put them in their most logical order. Next, brainstorm the possible actions that you could take that would see you move through each chunk and onto the next.
So for instance, if your goal was to retrain towards a new career, one of your chunks may be to ‘gather information’ and the possible actions may include to ‘enquire into different course offerings at the local University / speak to a career counsellor / do some internet research…etc”. Notice how each step seems to be a subset of the previous one. Also, that the bite-sized chunk offers a variety of possible actions within it. The purpose of this is to open up the many possibilities available to you to move through that step, giving you several ways to win.
Be in action!
